Forget about carbon offsetting and slashing your food miles – the eco-friendly lifestyle is a luxury most of us can no longer afford. Neil Tweedie reports

WASHINGTON, DC (August 18, 2008) – The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical information that the US government is withholding about the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees. NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher are convinced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country. The phenomenon has come to be called “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD, and it is already proving to have disastrous consequences for American agriculture and the $15 billion worth of crops pollinated by bees every year.

Israeli scientists have paved the way for a possible kosher caviar. After 15 years of research they have established a sturgeon farm where fish are bred to produce the eggs for caviar.

Coral reefs need to be protected and managed on a global scale if they are to have any chance of surviving global warming, a new study warns.

Britain’s population could exceed 77 million in fifty years time. We will need to plan correctly for the future if we are going to conserve our resources, writes Charles Clover.

Golf in hot countries needs a massive amount of water to maintain its lush greens. Can you play and still be environmentally conscious?

Why reinvent the wheel for harvesting the sun’s power when there’s a masterclass going on under our noses?

Environmentalists are furious about the Venezuelan president’s plans for a giant oil pipeline to unite the continent

How do you keep an energy-hungry developing country from turning into a carbon-spewing monster? New Scientist went to find out

One Munyentwari lost all his crops this year. He was the lucky one. His neighbor, one Dansila, lost all her crops and the house that she and her four children had called home for 10 years. She too was among the lucky ones.